Introspection
by Kogarashi
Summary: A series of short introspection pieces from the POV of different characters from Inuyasha.
1. Inuyasha

A/N: This is my first fanfic. I was inspired after reading a wonderful piece about Miroku, written by another Fanfiction.net member. ^_^ Hope you all like this. I'm starting with Inuyasha, but I'll include introspective pieces from other characters in the future.  
  
  
  
Introspection  
  
  
  
Inuyasha  
  
***  
  
Why do they pierce my heart like this?  
  
She, the one who pinned me to the tree, the one who I once loved and...I think...love still. What happened between us is irreparable, yet still she pursues me, still she seeks to take me with her. As though dragging me down to hell will negate everything she...I...we have done. The bitter hate we held toward each other. Hate that drove us to fight, that drove me to steal the jewel, that drove her to pin me to Goshinboku. Hate that killed her, hate that sustains her now. Hate and anger. Why does she still cause my heart to leap to my throat, my body to quiver, my breath come ragged?  
  
And then she...she who saved me. The one who removed the arrow and freed me from Goshinboku's arms. The one who stays by my side, fights by my side. Why does she stir these feelings in my chest, these tremors only my priestess was ever able to stir? Why does her scent make me tremble, and threaten to unman me? Why this weakness around her?  
  
I am supposed to be strong. I buried my feelings years ago, when my love betrayed me and pierced me through the heart with an arrow of power. I tried to hate her, the woman who sealed me. I tried to forget her. I tried to drive that foreign girl away. All I wanted was the jewel, and what it could make of me.  
  
And now I see that it isn't what I want after all. I can never let anyone know, never let anyone see my weakness. But now...now, I want to be with her, simply to be with her, the girl who freed me. Who travels beside me, who has never left my side except to return to her home for her family. I want her to stay so much I try to keep her from leaving, though I know she'll only "sit" me again for trying. But try I do, because I can't stand it when she's not here.  
  
And I will continue to try, until I have one or the other; the woman who hates me, as she hates all things, or the woman who continues to come back of her own free will to this time. Who pierces my heart not with physical arrows, but with emotional ones.  
  
And I welcome that pain. 


	2. Kagome

A/N: Well, I suppose you've all been gnawing your fingernails waiting for this. ^_^;;; I've been rather busy lately, and trying to think of the right angle to approach this from. So, without further ado, here's the next chapter in my Introspection fic.  
  
Introspection  
  
  
  
Kagome  
  
***  
  
Ah, the well.  
  
Such an old well, and a dry one. Grandfather always called it the bone- eater's well, but I never knew quite why. Grandfather was always telling so many stories about the history of our shrine, of the well and the trees and the very stones.... We never really listened to him, because he always told such stories, no matter what about. He even told them about our dinners.  
  
Maybe I should've listened more.  
  
Then maybe I might have been somewhat prepared when that old, dry well--and the demon in it--took me back to feudal Japan. When it took me back to where I met my new friends.  
  
Where I met him.  
  
Pinned to the old Goshinboku, the sacred tree that has always stood within our shrine for as long as I've known. The tree where Father proposed to Mother. The tree that's been with my brother and myself through every triumph, every defeat, every small and seemingly insignificant memory.  
  
The tree that now means more to me than ever before.  
  
Because Goshinboku was where I met him, that boy who at first irritated me to no end. Who tried to take the sacred jewel which had been in my body. Who even tried to kill me to get at the jewel.  
  
The boy who now breaks my heart with his indecision.  
  
He still loves her, the girl who looks like me. The old priestess says I am the girl's reincarnation, but all we seem to have in common is looks. She hates him. She hates me. She seems to hate everything around her. How can I be her?  
  
I know he wants me to be her. I can see it in his eyes when he looks at me that way, when he thinks no one notices. He looks at me and sees her, and wants me to be her. Because she would never go back through the well to her own world, because this world is hers. Because she has greater power than me. Because he loved her first, and loves her still.  
  
Nevermind that she and I are supposed to be the same person. He still wants her more than me.  
  
I can tell.  
  
All I am to him is someone who can sense the shards of the jewel. Maybe a friend now, a traveling companion, but nothing more. He doesn't even let me go back to my world to see my family and my friends and to take my tests so I can get into a good high school. He always tries to stop me, except for once or twice when he's actually tried to force me to stay there. He puzzles me sometimes.  
  
But I'm too much like my mother. I stay strong during hard times, no matter how alone I may be. Even if that puzzling boy does go to her, the woman who hates him, I'll still have my other friends here. I'll survive. I have to.  
  
And maybe, just maybe, he'll finally notice me. 


End file.
